As most of you know, Cindy and I relocated to southern Indiana. That’s an area that is known as The Heartland. This is John Mellencamp territory; in fact, he was born on Seymour, about 20 miles from where we live.
My wife (aka: friend/muse) suggested that I do an album with a “rural” theme. The actual word she used was Agricultural, but I decided to broaden it a bit. So, I started to look around the area to see what there was in the way of inspiration.
In my universe, if you go looking for inspiration, you WILL find. It’s there; you just have to spot it and be open to it. There was the wind farm right around Lafayette; there’s the Muscatatuck River which runs less than 2 miles from our house; there’s the Blue River and the Wabash, both of which have historical connections. Of course, the green fields of corn and soy abound and stretch for miles and miles. There was a lot of beauty, a lot of heritage to draw from.
Then came the writing. With the help of a lot of photos and video footage, I was able to capture, not only the essence but the motion of many of these places and things. Working instrumentally meant that I could use a wide variety of musical colors from the sonic palette; it also gave me an opportunity to incorporate my two steel string guitars: a 1971 Martin 12-string with the “high” strings removed, and a 1950 Harmony Archtop that I got at an auction just before we left New York State.
When the recording was done, I sent the mixes to my good friend, and former recording partner, Scott B. Adams to be mastered. The result is a lovely sounding tonal picture of the amazing variety of the landscape of Middle America.
Should you be interested in sampling (or purchasing) any of this new music, check out CDBaby .
And to watch the video of “Wind Farm” go to Windfarm .
It’s almost like a ballet with wind mills.
One more thing: there is a new opportunity for anyone who feels led to support me as an independent musician. Patreon.com is best described as a Kickstarter-style campaign, but it’s ongoing. For more information on how it works, go toPatreon .
